What I've Been Enjoying Lately and a Life Update

Other than my little series on birth control, I have not posted on this page since June - which was, not so coincidentally, also the month we found out we are pregnant with our second! Between morning sickness, anemia, family visits, my husband’s seminary work, a birthday party for a one-year-old, and wrapping up my college degree, it has been a busy summer/fall. But, now with school out of the way, I hope to be more active in this space.

Pregnancy Updates

My first pregnancy felt so slow. We talked about the baby all the time, all our thoughts were on the baby, all our planning was around the baby, all my journaling was about the baby, etc etc. This go around has been so much faster. As many of you more seasoned mothers already know, a toddler makes your life so much busier. I can hardly believe I will be 23 weeks tomorrow! I know once the holidays pass, and they are always a blur, our February due date will appear out of nowhere and our little boy will be here. Yes, a boy! So exciting.

This has been a very different pregnancy in many ways. I was told, halfway through my second trimester (!!!), that the postpartum hypertension I had the first go around was not merely hypertension but preeclampsia. (My first birth story is linked below.) PreE conjures up that dreadful Downton Abbey episode for me, so uh, naturally this was alarming. But, that said, my OB and I have been on much better top of my health.

A Hypochondriac Has a Baby

I’ve been trying to implement the Brewer Diet (more protein, more calories, more salt, hitting major food groups every day) to build a healthy blood volume (inadequate blood volume is often the cause of PreE). (Please give me your insight if you have done the Brewer Diet! Did it help you? Did you cheat and drink coffee?) I’ve been taking iron and will get an iron infusion later this month because it turns out that having back-to-back pregnancies and undereating while nursing lead to… anemia. Who knew? lol.

While my hypochondriac self is tempted to panic about these things, it is good to remember that God is every day developing this little human inside of me. Trust has been impressed upon me much more in this pregnancy than in the last. I felt I had it together last time. I have had to trust that all these relatively manageable health issues are in the Lord’s capable hands. And trust that the little guy is okay even though he wiggles less than my firstborn did (anterior placenta this time).

All that said, we are so excited to meet our little boy. I’ve been thrifting some baby clothes for him and the smallness of newborn onesies makes me eager for all those new baby snuggles come winter. It is amazing to think that while I have been chasing a toddler, keeping the house tidy, running errands, visiting friends, and just existing, God has done the work of knitting together a new person. I contribute so little to the process in light of what he does. How cool.

Daughter Turning One

Our sweet little girl turned one in September! She is truly a ray of sunshine. She is constantly moving and constantly smiling. She does everything with much purpose, which is so fun to watch. She has a growing love for the outdoors and grins when the wind blows back the little blond fuzz on her head. Getting dressed is not her favorite activity but she loves it when I tell her “so beautiful!” after placing a bow on her head. She’s still looking like her dad but that’s okay. He has the best smile and I love that he gave that to her. We both rejoice over the joy she radiates and pray that it grows into deep Gospel joy!

We had a small birthday party for her with close friends and grandparents. She enjoyed herself immensely and the homemade strawberry cake was a big hit (and easier than I anticipated!). My parents drove in for the occasion and we enjoyed time with them too.

I kept thinking back to her very first birthday, over a year ago now, and how magnificent it was. All births are spectacular but I do believe the first one sears the memory like nothing else. I remember the gratitude I had when, after a longer-than-anticipated hospital stay (thanks PreE and magnesium), we were able to take our little one home on my golden birthday. Coming home to a birthday cake for me from my mom, to take a much-needed shower, and to rest with our girl was lovely. It was my best birthday to date.

Just realized there’s lots of cake in this post lol.

Wrapping Up College

After half a gap year, a transfer, a wedding, and two pregnancies… I am officially done with college! I’m graduating with a degree in English, which didn’t dive quite as deep as I would have liked, but I now have all the time in the world (okay maybe not all the time) to study what I want to study. It is wonderful to have no assignments looming in my to-do list. Maybe I’ll write about the online college experience one day because it is definitely not what my idealistic 16-year-old self had envisioned for these years. I am grateful for my degree though and grateful for all those who helped me finish!

Books

So many since the last post. Here’s a quick list with my Goodreads ratings.

• Ex Libris (4/5)

• Hannah’s Children (5/5) - a new favorite for sure.

• The Greengage Summer (3/5)

• Husband-Coached Childbirth (3/5)

• Anna Karenina (5/5)

• Gunnar’s Daughter (3/5)

• Helena (4/5)

• Cassandra and Jane (1/5)

• The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert (5/5)

• A Town Like Alice (4/5) - The ending had some major flaws but the beginning/middle was solid.

• Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age (5/5)

• Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont (4/5)

• Our Bodies Tell the Story (5/5)

• Angle of Repose (2/5) - good writing but the plagiarism???

• Magnolia Table (cookbooks count right?) (5/5)

• Middlemarch (current read but 5/5) - Planning to write about this one.

  

Podcasts

Another quick list. I listen to more but these are the ones I recommend without reservation and find the most enjoyment out of.

• Close Reads, both flagship show and subscriber podcast, loving the Mansfield Park episodes!

• Christian History Almanac, an excellent start to the day.

• The Daily Poem, part of the Goldberry network.

• Truth Unites.

• Managing Your Fertility - lots of good stuff on NFP and natural/restorative approaches to infertility.

Coffees

I have been trying to limit my coffee because on the Brewer Diet, you technically aren’t supposed to have any diuretics but I do have my one little drink a day. With only one drink I usually opt for something other than a black French press. Though it’s started to be chilly here in the South, at least on some days, I'm still drinking lots of iced coffee. Something about pregnancy makes hot coffee less appealing. Does anyone else feel this way?

Some favorites this month include:

• Homemade Pumpkin Sauce - found this gem of a recipe on Pinterest. It goes great in sooo many things!

• Iced Americano with Pumpkin Cold Foam - double shot espresso, a generous amount of ice, water, top with whipped pumpkin sauce and heavy cream.

• Iced Pumpkin Spice Latte - double shot espresso, pumpkin sauce, I like about 4 oz milk, and top with ice.

• (The best one of all) Salted Maple Cinnamon Latte - double shot espresso, 2 TBS real maple syrup, pinch salt, cinnamon to taste, 4 oz milk, ice.

  

  The SMCL herself. She’s a lovely little latte.

Recipes

• Turkey Pumpkin Chili - super simple ingredients. I made this one in my Dutch oven because our crockpot decided it no longer wanted to be a functioning member of this household.

• Creamy Chicken and Rice Soup - I add a splash of lemon juice to the mirepoix veggies before I create a roux and it adds a very nice level of freshness to the final product. My husband asked for this one two weeks in a row!

• 1 Pan Apple Cider Chicken - served with biscuits and greens, so yummy!

• Pumpkin Bread - I’ve made this like one to two times a week for over a month. We’ve been eating it with fruit and turkey breakfast sausage every morning and still haven’t tired of it. Our daughter loves it too. When my husband sits down to eat before going to work she hovers around him until he gives her a bite… and another… and another. I swap out the all-purpose flour for whole wheat so it’s more Brewer friendly.

• Chicken Salad - I don’t have a link for this but here’s what I do. Poach about 1lb worth of chicken breasts, and mix with green onions, celery, craisins, slivered almonds, Green Goddess seasoning from Trader Joe’s, mayonnaise, and dijon mustard. Also salt and pepper. Serve on toast or in a salad.

That’s a wrap! Please share your favorite recipes (coffee or otherwise) down below! And please comment if you’ve done the Brewer Diet! I know so few people who have practiced it!

we finally decorated my daughter's room - just in time to put a baby boy in there in about a year haha